Jack-of-all trades Jay Miller writes about boxing, high school sports and music. A native of West Bridgewater, he was captain of his high school track team. He played football at Stonehill College. He also played guitar, bass, sax, bongos and drums.
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Jack-of-all trades Jay Miller writes about boxing, high school sports and music. A native of West Bridgewater, he was captain of his high school track team. He played football at Stonehill College. He also played guitar, bass, sax, bongos and drums. He and a friend had a duo, covering Dylan and Creedence. While in grad school at Boston University, he spent many free afternoons at Fenway Park. He covered Marvin Hagler from bouts at Brockton High to Las Vegas, has written for The Ring, Fight Fax and Boxing Illustrated. He began reviewing music for The Patriot Ledger in 1986, along with all kinds of sports. He's been on the PawSox beat since about 1998. He once met Bo Diddley at the old K-K-K-Katies in Kenmore Square, and still wonders whatever happened to The Ultimate Spinach.

A lot of music fans feel Craig Bickhardt should have become a major star thirty years ago, when some of his music helped make the movie "Tender Mercies" such an emotionally resonant triumph.That 1982 Academy Award-winning film was highlighted by what was probably Robert Duvall's best role ever, as a down-on-his-luck, alcoholic country singer who finds redemption with the woman who gives him work, and ultimately, a reason to shape up.† Duvall sang some of the songs himself on the soundtrack, but the tune that played over the end credits really struck a chord with audiences, as "You Are What Love Means To Me" seemed to encapsulate the film's theme, along with being a terrific love song.Bickhardt, who appears at the New Bedford Folk Festival this weekend, was the singer on that song, as well as the songwriter, and he seemed to be primed for huge success.† With a gift for penning intelligent lyrics that were also simple and direct, Bickhardt is also a master guitarist, with a soothing tenor/baritone voice that seems to glide effortlessly through his appealing melodies.The quick summary of Bickhardt's early career is eye-opening to say the least. He had been signed by Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman by the time he was 25, and soon after that the legendary music mogul Ahmet Ertegun inked him to an artist development deal with Atlantic Records. Art Garfunkel covered one of his songs, and before that movie came out, Bickhardt had already shared the stage as opening act for folks like Harry Chapin, Stephen Stills, and a young Bruce Springsteen.In later years, artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and Alison Krauss have covered his songs. Bickhardt, however, has remained a pretty well-kept musical secret, playing the coffeehouse circuits, continuing to write memorable tunes, and meeting fans† who're amazed he isn't a bigger name.On May 6, Bickhardt released his fifth album, "The More I Wonder," a collection of a dozen new songs, with the added feature of having his daughter Aislinn sing harmony on several cuts. Bickhardt had lived in Nashville for 24 years, before moving back to his Pennsylvania roots in 2006. While in Music City, he'd focused on writing, but still performed regularly, and even had a couple minor hits with a trio of songsmiths he was in.The move to Pennsylvania marked a turn towards more performing, and more touring from a more centralized location for the many venues in the Northeast and East Coast. But it was also occasioned by his son, who has cerebral palsy, and his ongoing care needs. Coverage in Tennessee was limited, after the state opted out of Medicaid and had its own Tenn-Care run into financial problems."Pennsylvania is great for disability services," Bickhardt explained, "and as our son (now 26) was getting to the age where he'd be off our insurance, making sure he had access to good medical coverage was a primary reason for our move."One of the more striking tuners on the new CD is dedicated to Bickhardt's son, and "It Opens" takes the perspective that every challenge is also an opportunity. It's a view that Bickhardt admits he had to keep reminding himself about."That song is a combination of my son and his challenges, and starting over myself," said Bickhardt, 60. "I wanted to find a new way of interacting with my music and my audiences, and I felt that my kind of music is appreciated more in this part of the country. The song is a re-affirmation of my faith that you can turn anything into an opportunity for growth and good things."A couple of other songs deal with the life of a troubadour, both "The Restless Kind," who's always on the move, and "Crazy Nightingale," about one who "sang your lonely life away.""Most of my songs are about several people, but "The Restless Kind" is sort of autobiographical," said Bickhardt. "That also has strong Celtic influences, and since I'm three-quarters Scottish-Irish, that's a flavor I frequently like to have. 'Crazy Nightingale' is again, heavily influenced by Celtic music, and reflects the difficulty of an artist's life, the many musicians like Jimi Hendrix we lose early, and also was informed by a book I'd read about Dylan Thomas."While most of Bickhardt's work would be closer to folk music than country or any other genre, the new song "Stan" could be seen as an update, thirty years later, of a character from Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."† It's a jaunty kind of tune, riding a superb accordion line from Michael Webb of Poco, a Bickhardt pal. The main character in this poignant song is a Vietnam vet in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who's lost his job and his way in the changing economy, and now can be found "paying himself in regrets and beer..""We play all these Rust Belt towns, where you see the effects of all the jobs leaving," said Bickhardt. "I set this one in Bethlehem because it is such a beautiful town, and an old factory has been converted into a gorgeous new entertainment center there, but you also see these poor guys on the outskirts, who've just lost the jobs they always had."No doubt Bickhardt has been answering questions about 'Tender Mercies' for thirty years, but we had to probe into that a bit too, and whether it mis-labeled him as a country singer."I had gone to Nashville back then to rub elbows and do shows with all the people I felt were doing the music I wanted to do," Bickhardt noted. "Artists like Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, and Kathy Mattea--none of whom were exactly country, but more hybrid singer-songwriters. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I'd loved Tom Rush, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Paxton, Eric Andersen and folksingers like that. And I think all of us were heavily influenced by The Beatles, yet we're not British pop acts. Genres exist for radio, but musicians don't make those distinctions--we're† a combination of all our influences.""The publishing company I was working for, EMI, sent me the screenplay for 'Tender Mercies' and suggested I see if I could write anything for it. That song just came out of me, and I was never sure it'd be right for the movie, but they loved it. I didn't really see any uptick in my own career after that movie came out, and won the Academy Award. I had hoped when the soundtrack album came out on Liberty Records I might get a record deal with them, but that didn't happen. Any benefit I got out of it was slow and long-term, and I'm glad people still remember the song, but it was great to be associated with such a fine movie."Bickhardt plays a lot of theaters and coffeehouses these days, and he said house parties are a growing phenomenon for intimate-venue performers like him. This is his first visit to the New Bedford Folk Festival which runs Saturday and Sunday (tickets $20 day/$25 weekend) and there are four chances for fans to hear him. (Check www.newbedfordfolkfestival.com for schedules).Saturday afternoon Bickhardt appears twice at the Custom House Park Stage; with a noontime summit of songwriters, devoted to love songs, with Cliff Eberhardt and Marina Evans; and at 2:30 on a "Is That a Guitar behind the Cactus?: Country, Folk, Western" group with Ronny Cox and Michael Johnson.† On Sunday, Bickhardt is part of a songwriting discussion with John Gorka and Vance Gilbert, at the Whaling Museum Theater at 12:30 p.m. Then, at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Bickhardt headlines the National Park Garden Stage.